Upgrade confirmed in morning, but cancelled on check-in

[phily]

The J entry would have been a waitlisted segment most likely. The QF system will add in this segment in the leadup to the flight and will remove it if it's unsuccessful

Showing the waitlisted segment for a points upgrade request is even more confusing when one looks at the Qantas iPhone app. It shows two entries for the flight, one being that which was booked and confirmed and the other being the waitlisted one, however the iPhone app has no indication that it's merely a waitlisting entry.

 

[Kangol]

I brought this case as an extreme example to what people can get compensated for. I think both the passenger (for asking compensation) and Thai (for offering anything) were idiots in this case.

What is so bad about the pax asking? It could be said in jest; you've gotta be in it to win it.
For all we know, the company may have "budgeted" to give out compensation only for those who ask.

Kinda like in some countries where for delays of a certain duration, they will offer hotel accommodation for those who ask. If you don't ask, you don't get it.

 

[pugwombat]

Hi all. I just got a phone call from Qantas customer relations. They apologized on behalf of the company. They assured me that steps are being put in place so that it never happens to anyone again. They topped up each of our FF accounts with goodwill FF points. What a dreadful job, ringing up grumpy customers!

I still didn't find out why we were shafted, but I'm too busy to spend any more time on this.

Will I remain with Qantas? Probably. But I've just joined *A, and my next flight in 2 week's time is with AC. I'll be buying my J class seats from now on, not relying on the upgrade lucky dip.

 

[MelUser]

A reasonable outcome.

Would you be willing to post a JPG of the statement showing the upgrade points debited and then credited. You can of course black out everything else.

 

[pugwombat]

Yep. Happy to oblige. Here you go....

 

[moa999]

How was Jetstar Japan?

 

[pugwombat]

How was Jetstar Japan?

Jetstar was painless.

Departed and arrived on time.

No expectations. No frills. No disappointments.

 

[JohnK]

Yep. Happy to oblige. Here you go....

You may want to black out your upgrade reference as well as that is your booking reference.

 

[mannej]

You may want to black out your upgrade reference as well as that is your booking reference.

If the trip is finished, is it a big deal?

 

[pugwombat]

You may want to black out your upgrade reference as well as that is your booking reference.

I checked. It has already been deleted from Qantas' system.

 

[JohnK]

If the trip is finished, is it a big deal?

No big deal. Simply one less way of someone able to put 2 and 2 together.

 

[ReLoad]

Thank you Pugwombat for keeping us posted of the outcome.

Whilst it no doubt it did not make your trip home any nicer at least you both received an apology and also a little compensation.

Also a great decision to buy the J tickets in future, as many others have always posted on here; Always prepare to travel in the class you are booked in, upgrade or no upgrade.

 

[drron]

Very glad to see that you got a reasonable outcome.Should not have happened though.
As the points were taken on the morning of the flight the QF bird was already on the ground in NRT.So change of equipment is not the cause of this problem.
Someone just stuffed up is my guess.

 

[Sojourner]

Airlines shouldn't discriminate against people on lower cost fares or who have used points to buy their seat or upgrade. If this was the case, then they shouldn't tell people they can use points to buy or upgrade to J, but be explicit and say, it's an upgrade to "Second class business where we will discriminate and treat you differently for daring to use your points".*

Discriminating against people for using points is terrible.

*Edit: Maybe that can be the new class or acronym we could all use when referring to upgrades and award tickets in J - "2CJ or SCJ- Second class business"

 

[MEL_Traveller]

hmmm... so QF kinda 'wins' out of this? The OP is now going to buy J class tickets (more revenue) rather than try and use hard earned points to get an upgrade.

I hope the OP has explored more profitable FF schemes in that case... AAdvantage for example will give you round-trip to tokyo for 90K miles in business class, or USA for 125K return, or first for 145K

 

[eastwest101]

hmmm... so QF kinda 'wins' out of this? The OP is now going to buy J class tickets (more revenue) rather than try and use hard earned points to get an upgrade.

I hope the OP has explored more profitable FF schemes in that case... AAdvantage for example will give you round-trip to tokyo for 90K miles in business class, or USA for 125K return, or first for 145K

Qantas may think they have won out of this with their (in my opinion) rather paltry goodwill gesture of points, but if the OP is now booking and paying for J class flights with *A AC/UA/SQ and maybe VA )or using AAdvantage as others have suggested) then I would not call that a win for QF, that is a high value customer served up on a plate to Qantas competitors..... thats still a fail / own goal in my books.

Note that there was still no explanation for the downgrade from Qantas either so there is no real way that the OP knows that QF has even identified or indeed corrected whatever the problem was.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Qantas may think they have won out of this with their (in my opinion) rather paltry goodwill gesture of points, but if the OP is now booking and paying for J class flights with *A AC/UA/SQ and maybe VA )or using AAdvantage as others have suggested) then I would not call that a win for QF, that is a high value customer served up on a plate to Qantas competitors..... thats still a fail / own goal in my books.

Note that there was still no explanation for the downgrade from Qantas either so there is no real way that the OP knows that QF has even identified or indeed corrected whatever the problem was.

(my take, apologies to the OP) was that there was an upcoming flight on AC, but otherwise, they were going to buy business class tickets on QF in future to escape the upgrade lottery.

as for the correction of the problem... qantas now knows that there are hundreds of frequent flyers (AFF members) who are now at least aware of the possibility that confirmed, paid, upgrades may be rescinded for any reason, at any time.

an explanation as to how this happened, and what steps are in place to prevent this, could assist in easing concerns.

 

[basso]

an explanation as to how this happened, and what steps are in place to prevent this, could assist in easing concerns.

Simple. Somebody, somewhere made a mistake. It happens, despite all the wonderful automation that exists today. I don't think anyone owes you a detailed explanation of what happened, but I imagine it will internally be looked at.

 

[QF WP]

Kudos to pugwombat for bringing it to Red Roo's attention and having it escalated that way. I'm glad to see that the service recovery has been done and it seems (in my opinion) an adequate compensation for the circumstances.

It has also set a precedence for AFF members who now know that compensation is available in similar circumstances. :idea:

I'm sure there has been a deal of learning on both sides.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Simple. Somebody, somewhere made a mistake. It happens, despite all the wonderful automation that exists today. I don't think anyone owes you a detailed explanation of what happened, but I imagine it will internally be looked at.

we don't actually know that 'somebody' made a mistake. it could be a system error introduced by a system upgrade or something. We don't know if this is a one-off or ongoing.

it is possible, for all we know, that the 'improved' Qantas upgrade system (which was extended to allow upgrades as late as the gate) can also take those upgrades away (as late as the gate).